XCP and XenServer FAQ

Today, Citrix announced that XenServer would be fully open sourced and that it will be made available from XenServer.org. This document explores how the Xen Project is impacted by this announcement.

I am a XAPI developer: How am I impacted?

The short answer is: not at all. Contribution to the XAPI packages continues to be handled by the Xen Project under Xen Project governance. The XAPI project will make some changes to how it operates, but any changes will follow Xen Project community rules, will be discussed openly and made using the Xen Project decision making process. In fact discussions on consolidating mailing lists, how to release XAPI, etc. had already started several weeks ago.

How will XAPI sub-project Development Change?

The XAPI project plans to change how it develops and releases XAPI components (as initially discussed at the Xen Hackathon). To summarize, the following changes are being discussed in the community:

Change the release from an infrequent XCP ISO release to a source release that is identified by a unique version number and provide a convenient mechanism for distros to consume the release (e.g. a tarball).

Increase the release frequency : publish a build every other week (aka a sprint) and provide a release every 3 months

Publish what is planned to go into the next few sprints as information becomes available

Contribution to the project will happen via the project’s Github instance (as now)

Note that this discussion has not yet concluded: feel free to join! Other changes that are currently being discussed are about mailing lists for the project, how to raise bugs, etc.

I am a user of XAPI Linux packages: How am I impacted?

The short answer is: not at all. Development of the XAPI toolstack and the packaging of these components continue as part of the Xen Project. However, there will not be an immediate update of the XCP-XAPI packages in Linux distros. Before there can be an update to these packages, the XAPI project team needs to deliver an independent XAPI release. For more information check the “What’s next”section below. Discussion, questions and bug reports for XCP-XAPI packages can be made on the appropriate distro mailing lists and on Xen Project mailing lists, IRC channels or the Q&A system.

I am a user of XCP: how am I impacted?

In the past, XCP ISOs have been built by Citrix and have been delivered to users via Xen.org. The XCP ISOs were migrated to the Xen Project. By fully open sourcing XenServer, the need to deliver new XCP ISOs via the Xen Project website has gone away. XCP ISOs will be replaced by open source XenServer binaries which are available from XenServer.org. The transition from XCP ISOs to XenServer should be smooth and painless:

No functionality will be taken away from XCP users

Users of XCP 1.6 will be able to upgrade to XenServer

The main difference for you will be that you need to download the product from a different place and that it has been renamed. XCP users have been supporting each other through mailing lists (xen-xapi@lists.xenproject.org) and the #xen-api IRC channel. These mechanisms will of course not go away, but we hope that you will find the resources on XenServer.org useful.